This invention relates to water jets and particular to water jets mounted on a mobile gantry or the like for removing coating and oxidation from transit vehicles.
As one skilled in this technology appreciates, vehicles, such as trains, railcars, buses, shipping containers, trailers and the like, when treated for removal of oxidation and coatings these treatments are typically environmentally unsafe chemical, abrasive, scrubbing or mechanical processes. It is generally well known that these methods fail to completely de-coat and clean the surface and often are expensive and produce waste water and/or chemicals that require treatment or disposal.
There are a sundry number of waterjet mechanisms that are discussed in the literature, as for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,517 granted to Knudson et al on Jun. 6, 1995 and entitled HIGH PRESSURE WATERJET NOZZLE; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,293 granted to Meredith et al on Nov. 26, 1996; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,713 granted to Butler et al on Jul. 14, 1998 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ULTRA HIGH PRESSURE WATER JET PEENING. The earlier two patents being commonly assigned with this patent application to United Technologies Corporation directly or through a subsidiary as noted within the patent and the other patent is assigned to another company not associated with the assignee of this patent application. Essentially, these patents relate to nozzles for stripping the surface materials from a substrate or using high energy waterjet for working the surface of a material. In these types of mechanisms the nozzle operates over a relatively small surface and the surface or nozzle is moved to ultimately treat a larger surface. U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,517, supra, for example, describes a prior art waterjet system that is typically employed to remove for example the coatings applied to aircraft components, space vehicles used in outer space missions and the like. The high power waterjet nozzle of the type depicted in this patent includes mechanism for rotating a nozzle and when translated across a surface creates an array of jet streams discharging from orifices in a nozzle that defines a swath that is intended to uniformly strip the coating from the substrate. In particular an array of radially extended orifices located in the nozzle are dimensioned and located to define the amount of energy of the jet that provides the uniform stripping without incurring damage to the substrate.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,293, supra, for example, discloses another high pressure waterjet nozzle capable of use for stripping coatings, paint and the like from substrates or components. The nozzle in the structure depicted in this patent includes radially spaced orifices that communicate with a source of high pressure water and the end effector supporting the nozzle is gimbal mounted to provide the desired motion of the nozzle and hence, the swath of highly energized jet stream developed by the nozzle.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,713, supra, for example, discloses a nozzle with a single orifice that serves to discharge ultrahigh velocity waterjet that is utilized for peening the outer surface of an object so as to alter the properties of the material by localized compression and altering the crystal structure.
This invention is not an automobile cleaning type of power unit that is mounted on a fixed structure or mobile gantry or a combination thereof, that cleans/waxes the surface of automobiles by spraying a liquid detergent and gently brushing the automobile and then, applying heat to dry the surface. In these mechanisms, a relatively low pressure water is ejected from a nozzle and the automobile is typically pulled by a motorized pulley or track through an array of nozzles and a brush is mounted on a gantry that rides over the automobile. Heating mechanism is associated with this mechanism for drying purposes.
This invention is more concerned with the removal of oxidation and coatings that are securely affixed to the surface of the vehicle and which coatings are typically difficult to remove and for that reason this invention contemplates utilizing high energy water spray which has never been utilized for this purpose. According to this invention the de-coating and/or de-oxidizing is accomplished with a transporter device, such as a mobile gantry with multiple spray heads with specialized water jetting nozzles being fed from a high pressure water pump(s), having operator control mechanism and employing mechanism for treatment of the effluent materials. Transport mechanism is judiciously employed to align the nozzles in a particular relationship with the surface intended to be de-oxidized or/and de-coated. As will be discussed in more detail hereinbelow, this invention treats the entire vehicle at one time eliminating the time consuming and costly processes that have been heretofore employed.
An object of this invention is to provide high energy waterjet mechanism operating over a relatively large surface for removing oxidizing or coatings from a vehicle such as a train, railcars, trucks, buses, shipping containers, trailers, and the like.
A feature of this invention is to mount a plurality of movable nozzles movable relative to its support mechanisms on a transport mechanism or mobile gantry and supply a high energy water stream to the nozzles to produce a waterjet for removing oxides and coatings from a vehicle.
Another feature of this invention is to mount the movable nozzles on a mobile gantry or the like and include motorized mechanism such as a ball screw actuator to position the nozzle relative to the surface intended to be de-oxidized and/or de-coated.
Another feature of this invention to provide an improved waterjet oxide and coating removal system from a vehicle having control mechanism to control the relative distance of the nozzle from the surface of the vehicle, to position the gantry, and control the system from a control panel.
Another feature of this invention is the provision of mechanism for capturing the effluent materials at the surface or in the facility where the treatment occurs and transporting the waste to a treatment center where the particles are removed in an environmentally safe atmosphere and manner.
The foregoing and other features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings.